Japanese brand's local boss rules out city car ... for now.

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Nissan blames ANCAP for Micra demise

Nissan's tiny Micra was set to return to Australia but has been hobbled by ANCAP safety concerns, transmission availability and value issues, the brand's local boss has revealed.

The European-developed new-generation light hatch has already been launched overseas, and while global operations offered the vehicle to its Down Under offshoot, Nissan Australia managing director and CEO Richard Emery confirmed the offer has been declined for now.

"It [Micra] could be made available to us in its current form," he exclusively told Drive.

"[But] I can tell you in its current guise in Europe, it wouldn't meet our expectations in terms of ANCAP score. Where it's good in Europe and meets Euro scoring structure, there would be some engineering work that would need to be done to make it viable for Australia."

The Australasia New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), in concert with its European equivalent, made headlines earlier this year after it awarded the Ford Mustang just two stars out of a maximum five, mostly due to rear-seat and active safety deficits.

While declining to point out what the Micra specifically lacked, Emery explained: "ANCAP gets harder every year, so there's some break points and bringing that car to market and anticipating where it needs to be from ANCAP's perspective means it moves it away from being aligned with Europe in terms of spec and build structure, which means there's [extra] investment required."

In the UK, the Micra offers autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and lane-departure warning and assistance active safety features that the Mustang lacked. But Emery further pointed to its European production and potential pricing and transmission availability issues that could affect its popularity in a sub-$20,000 segment renowned for being among the most price sensitive in the new-car market, while favouring automatics.

"A thousand bucks makes a big difference in that segment," he mused.

"It's [also] only available as manual at the moment in Europe, so there are some factors in play in terms of specification and cost and timing that don't suit us right at the moment."

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Emery admitted that he would be "very keen" to see the local introduction of the new Micra, which is recognised as a revolution for the nameplate in terms of styling and design. The previous model, which was far less premium and smaller than the new European-focused model, exited the Australian market last year after going on-sale in 2010.

"How Australians buy their cars, and what they look for, is probably more aligned with Europe and US, and not Asia-Pacific, which is kind of where we're bundled at the moment," he further confessed.

Nissan also produces a separate Pulsar for the European market, however the local CEO also revealed that "there is a vehicle to replace Pulsar which is very much a global product" set to be available in around 18 months.

"In fact it's a core product for the business globally, so there will be less variation around the world," he added.

"[European] Pulsar hatch might only have a couple of years left in its lifecycle and it could be the next car that replaces that in the Nissan world is more viable for us.

"These are the sorts of conversations we're having about not just what's available now, but what could be available in 18 months to two years … rather than just grabbing everything that's available, which probably we've been guilty of in the past."

The local outfit last month dropped both its Thailand-built Pulsar and Altima models due to the investment required to update their engines to emissions regulations facing Australia, but not other South-East Asia markets.

It leaves Nissan Australia with the Juke small SUV as its cheapest model, priced from $23,490 plus on-road costs, and the Leaf electric vehicle (EV) as its sole passenger car.

While he further confirmed a new-generation Altima large car is being worked on within a similar timeline to the Pulsar and would be assessed for reintroduction by 2019, the absence of a Micra and Pulsar in more popular light and small car segment posed the greatest concern.

"Nissan does have quite a loyal following [and] people move from a Micra into a Pulsar hatch because you've got a relationship with the brand," Emery continued.

"With us being inactive in that Micra/Pulsar segment for 18 months or whatever the timeframe is, there will be a group of customers there who will be affected three or four years from now.

"There won't be those traditional buyers who say 'I've had my Pulsar hatch for a few years but actually perhaps I need a Qashqai now'. So that worries me."

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Drive Comments

DJM61 | 04 May 2017 20:45

Micra was set to return to Australia but has been hobbled by ANCAP safety concerns, transmission availability and value issues, the brand's local boss has revealed. Were you meant to report this really embarrasing gaffe? In Japan the loss of honour ...

ibast | 07 May 2017 01:48

He does have a point. It probably just lacked the 27th air-bag, the one for the rear left passengers right toe. ANCAP has become stupid and I do not consider it whatsoever when buying a car.

Sidney Mincing | 07 May 2017 08:30

That's a pity about the Micra, it was the only Nissan that I thought was of any use, Cute, four doors, cheap to run/insure/register. A shame that Nissan Australia has gone down that path. They have very little else to offer

Azaros | 07 May 2017 11:18

From ANCAP's site in their own words The oldest vehicles (built 1999 or earlier) accounted for 20% of the fleet, but were involved in 36% of fatalities.The newest vehicles (built 2010-2015) accounted for 31% of the fleet, but were involved in 11% of fatalities.
You would think the current spec Mirca would make the grade,

sib4897 | 18 May 2017 17:31

If this article is talking about the new Micra, which the article states correctly doesn't currently offer an automatic option, why is the old model Micra pictured?